


One Step Ahead

by the_angel_and_the_righteous_man



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:44:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_angel_and_the_righteous_man/pseuds/the_angel_and_the_righteous_man
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vampire nests have been gathering together. This by itself is strange, but what's even stranger is that some of them are falling dead by a creature that Sam and Dean can't name or catch up to. But when they finally do, could it lead to the strangest thing of all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hell's Gatherings

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first long fic, so I apologize if chapters take a while to appear. I tend to get quite absent minded. However, I would appreciate feedback of any kind.

“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word, and nevermind that noise you heard. It’s just the beasts under your bed, in your closet, in your heeeeaaaaad!” The stereo of the Impala was cranked up as Sam and Dean pulled further and further away from the town of El Paso, Texas. Three vampire nests had grouped up together, strangely, and the boys had barely beaten them by the skin of their teeth. Sam rolled his eyes and reached over to turn down the music.  
“C’mon, man,” Sam said, rubbing his temples in hopes of relieving the pounding headache that was overpowering him. “Everyone back in El Paso can still hear that music. Also, Metallica, really?”  
“We’ve been over this, Sammy,” In contrast to what he was saying, Dean popped the cassette out of the stereo and turned it off. “Driver picks the music. Anyway, have you gone over what our next hunt’s gonna be? I’m pumped, ready to kill some sons of bitches.”  
“I think we’ve still got more to do on this hunt, Dean.” Sam pulled out his Ipad and portable Wi-Fi box. “I did a bit of research last night and even between Dad’s journal and the internet I can’t find any cases of nest gatherings. There’s also the matter of the ones that we didn’t kill.”  
“What do you mean, Sammy? We ganked all of them.”  
“Remember the original reason we went, Dean? It wasn’t because people were being mutilated. It was because there were cases of hearts just stopping. Those victims had fangs, Dean.”  
“Yeah, Sam, but vamps don’t have heartbeats either.”  
“Exactly. But they were dead, Dean. We offered them blood. They still had their heads. How do you explain that? Because Dad didn’t,” Sam held up John Winchester’s journal along with pages and pages of notes that he had found on vampires. “Nothing can explain vampires, immortal beings, might I remind you, just up and dying. It doesn’t make sense.”  
“Sam, why do we care how they died? They’re evil and now they’re dead. Who cares how it happened?”  
“Something powerful enough to kill a vampire without taking off its head is a danger to anything that moves. It might decide to start off killing vampires or ghouls or any other evil thing that you can imagine, but what happens when it decides to turn on humans? I’m not saying it will but the fact is that it could. I think we need to figure out what it is just to be alert of it, you know?”  
“Yeah, you’re right. I think I’m a bit more concerned about the gathering though. There’s got to be a reason for it, and chances are that of three nests caught on, the rest have, too.” Sam nodded and Dean sighed. “So do we track this thing and keep an eye on the vampires, or do we track the vampires and keep an eye on this thing?”  
“Tracking this thing might be pretty difficult, Dean. There was no evidence of this thing anywhere around El Paso, so there’s a good chance that it doesn’t want to be found. But then again, trying to track the vamps is like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles. We have no idea what we’re looking for. And it seems like lately the vamps have been laying low. Think about it, we weren’t drawn to El Paso because of slaughters because there weren’t slaughters to be drawn to. While the lack of killings makes things more suspicious, it also makes things a lot harder.”  
“Okay, you want to give me a straight answer now?” Dean bit into the sandwich that was laying on his lap and almost dropped it on the floor. “What are we tracking?”  
“I think the vamps are our best bet,” Sam said, already pulling up news sites in hopes of finding cattle of human mutilations somewhere in the States. “If this thing is killing them, by tracking them we should run into it eventually.”  
Dean grunted in agreeance. “So where do we go first?”  
Sam pulled up a page, and, to his surprise and relief, he knew exactly where they needed to go. “Springfield, Tennessee. Two sets of animal mutilations in the last week.”


	2. A Little Bit of Nothing

Dean rapped on the farmhouse door three times. “Excuse me!” After a few moments, a little girl opened the door a crack, just enough for her to see who it was. “Hey, Sweetheart,” Dean said, crouching down and giving the girl a warm smile. “Is your dad around?”  
The little girl shook her head. “No sir, my daddy done died before I was born.” The girl’s accent was unmistakably southern. “My momma has been takin’ care of the farm for nine years now. Well, ‘til all the animals done died.”  
Dean and Sam exchanged glances. “Do you know anything about the animals?”  
The little girl nodded excitedly. “My momma will tell y’all differently though.” She leaned in and whispered, “I think it were aliens. Y’all surely know that they take animal blood for their tests.”

“Abigail! You’ll be leavin’ these young men alone, now.” A woman, no older than thirty and with the same accent as the girl, came and whisked the girl away. “I’m awful sorry. She can be quite a bother.”  
“She was no bother, ma’am,” Sam said, smiling gently. “We’re reporters for the paper, do you mind if we ask a few questions about your cattle?”  
“Of course I don’t mind. Come on in ‘n I’ll make y’all boys some lemonade.”  
Sam shot a warning glance at Dean, hoping to stay outside so they could leave as soon as possible, but Dean followed the woman inside and sat himself down at the table.

“I’m Martha. Do y’all have names?” She laughed and brought out a pitcher of lemonade. “Well, I suppose y’all do. We gotta be callin’ y’all somethin’ don’t we?”  
“I’m Sam, and this is my brother, Dean.” Sam looked disgusted, as Dean had already downed half a glass of lemonade, but Martha only poured him more and smiled.  
“So what brings y’all boys ‘round here? Y’all don’t look too country, if y’all don’t mind my sayin’ so.”  
“Well,” Sam answered, taken by the southern hospitality, which he had always granted as a myth. “Actually, we’re from Kansas. We’re working on an article encompassing the cruelty of cattle mutilations around America, and we thought it might be nice to interview someone who experienced it.”

“Well, you see, son, I know exactly what done killed my cattle. It’s the same thing that done killed my husband.”  
“Excuse me, ma’am, but what do you mean?” Dean and Sam exchanged another glance.  
Martha looked around to make sure Abigail was nowhere around before answering. “Vampires. I know it must sound crazy, and, trust me, it is crazy when you watch ‘em tear your husband aart for food. Since John done died I been real careful to protect my lil’ Abby.”  
Dean raised his eyebrows. “They didn’t try to hurt you, did they?”  
“Oh, no, honey, n’ they couldn’t even if they wanted. This house is protected.” Martha seemed as sure of this as Sam and Dean were sure that ghosts were real.  
“Did you see them?” Sam asked.  
“Only for a second. Then there was a bright blue light n’ they fell to the ground. Then the light touched ‘em and they vanished.”

“Thank you , ma’am, I think that’s all we needed.” Sam stood up and put out his hand to shake with Martha, but instead she came around the table and hugged both him and Dean  
“Y’all come on back whenever you like,” She said with a smile, leading the boys to the door. “I always got some fresh lemonade for some nice younguns.”  
\--------

Back in the Impala, Sam turned to look at Dean. “You realize that this just got a lot harder,right?”  
“Yeah,” Dean said, his voice still chipper from the oddly good time spent with Martha. “That damn thing didn’t leave any of them alive for us to talk to about the gatherings.”  
“Well, yes there’s that. But, Dean, there’s something even bigger.” Sam had begun looking up vanishing bodies but only came up with kidnappings. “If Martha saw what she said she saw, and she looked pretty sure to me, then whatever this thing is doesn’t want us tracking it.”  
“I dunno, Sam, I think I’d try to avoid having someone follow me for no reason.”

Sam exhaled in frustration and shoved his Ipad back into his bag. He stopped when he felt his hand brush up against an envelope. When he pulled it out, the words ‘From Abby’ were written on it in blue crayon. “Abby must have snuck in while we were talking. She left me a letter.”  
“What does it say?”  
Sam opened the envelope to reveal two separate letters folded in half. One of them said “Read Me First” in the same blue crayon. “‘Sir, I found this the night that the aliens come. Momma don’t know I had it, but it says everythin you needin to know.’” Sam unfolded the other letter and read it out loud in shock and amazement.

“ _Sam and Dean,_  
 _I know you do not know me. But I know you are following me. I know a lot of things. Just like I know this letter will find it’s way to you. I want you to know that I am handling the problem at hand, and I firmly believe that I am much better at it than you are. I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly stop tracking me and the vampire nests. The problem is under control and I am not a threat to you nor anyone else._

_-Castiel_ ”

“What the hell is that?” Dean asked, infuriated that the thing not only told them to back off, but also thought it was better than them. “Now I just want to find it and kill it for fun.”  
“The handwriting is beautiful,” Sam remarked, tracing the C in Castiel.  
“We just got threatened and insulted and all you care about is handwriting?”  
“What else is there to care about, Dean? Things threaten us all the time! Of course we aren’t going to stop looking for the thing. In fact, it gave us a huge clue. Its name.”


End file.
